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Richard Wiseman

http://richardwiseman.wordpress.com/

Religion vs. Humanism: Isaac Asimov on Science and Spirituality by Maria Popova “The soft bonds of love are indifferent to life and death.” Science and religion have a long history of friction as diametric opposites. But some of humanity’s greatest minds have found in science itself a rich source of spirituality, from Albert Einstein’s meditation on whether scientists pray to Richard Feynman’s ode to the universe to Carl Sagan on the reverence of science to Bucky Fuller’s scientific rendition of The Lord’s Prayer to Richard Dawkins on the magic of reality .

Digital Storytelling with Voicethread (and How to Do It Offline) As regular readers of this blog will know, I love doing things in class that are simple yet productive and full of student-generated content. It might be something like a drawing activity that leads into a whole series of other tasks, a couple of everyday items as the basis of discussion, or, as featured on my recent guest post on Teaching Village, a basic digital camcorder and some very creative young minds. Another simple but effective web 2.0 tool I really like using is Voicethread. I love the interactivity it offers with different people able to leave messages on the same presentation slide as well as the option to combine images or text with audio or video comments.

It's Good for You Self-medication may be the reason the blogosphere has taken off. Scientists (and writers) have long known about the therapeutic benefits of writing about personal experiences, thoughts and feelings. But besides serving as a stress-coping mechanism, expressive writing produces many physiological benefits. Research shows that it improves memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity and reduces viral load in AIDS patients, and even speeds healing after surgery. So...You Wanna Be A Blogger So this is a blog. Yep. It really is, or at least I want it to be.

Evangelists of Logic The killing of Dr Narendra Dabholkar does not deter Indians fighting for the supremacy of reason. Here is why In September 2009, the famous rationalist Basava Premananda of Kerala fell severely ill. He had stomach cancer and many of his major organs were close to collapse. 23 Free Learning Tools For Monological, Dialogical and Polyphonic Forms of Teaching How Students Benefit From Using Social Media 12.98K Views 0 Likes A lot of criticism has been leveled at social media and the effect it has on the way students process and retain information, as well as how distracting it can be. However, social media offers plenty of opportunities for learning and interactivity, and if you take a moment to think about it, it's not too hard to see how students benefit from using social media. 10 African-American History Month Teaching Resources 1.26K Views 0 Likes

Just ONE Copy of The Daily Mail Could Ruin Your Life This article has been subject to a clarification by the author. You can read the full clarification here . Two years ago Oxford University neuroscientist Prof. Wyatt, Rawdon - Check Your Vocabulary for TOEFL Exercise 1Look at these sentences and decide if the statement which follows each one is true or false. Use thewords and expressions in bold to help you decide. General Vocabulary

Evidence is More Important Than Outrage: An Introduction What happens when scientific investigation gives us a conclusion we do not like, for example: prayer does not physically heal anyone (or else makes things worse for the patient being prayed for), homeopathy’s only effect is to pay a charlatan, and “Mother” Earth is finding smarter ways to kill us? What happens when evidence conclusively shows that what we thought is precisely or almost the opposite of what is true? Do we load our guns of conformity, light the canons of outrage, and march on? Despite our wishes, reality cannot be hidden by our desires or hopes but will reassert itself in the teeth of our aspirations: floods will drown, diseases will kill, people will oppress others.

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